In 2014, the entire industry stopped what it was doing for a bit to catch up on TwitchPlaysPokemon, the experimental video game experience where hundreds of thousands of participants played an emulated version of Pokemon Red through Twitch's livestream platform.

The 16-day crowdsourced experiment inspired developers to think up completely new ways of designing games that could be interactive not just for the people playing them, but for the audience watching them play it via livestream.  

At GDC Next 2014, game researcher and PhD candidate Alex Leavitt offered an analysis of the TPP phenomenon, using data collected from chat logs and fan forums to show how the crowd made TPP successful, why a flash fandom emerged, and how developers might conduct similar experiments in the future.

You can watch his presentation, "TwitchPlayedPokemon: An Analysis of the Experimental Interactive Phenomenon" right now (for free!) via the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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